Month: March 2019

Reading the series of events leading up to the actual killing of the other person was quite chilling. The biggest thing for me was that there was no emotion in these little girls. It was like a robot was telling me the story and describing to me how something so horrific could be done without a shred of remorse. At first I thought that Anissa was going to be the victim considering that Morgan and Bella were friends for a longer period of time. It wasn’t even stressed in the article that the girls had issues growing up. Therefore, the fact that they would commit murder for an imaginative figure was shocking. Even the way they were arrested was interesting because they didn’t really run. They weren’t planning on escaping law enforcement, they were just wandering until the “Slender Man” was going to pick them up.

Honestly, its hard for me to react to a murder case like this because I’m shocked in general and I don’t know how I could even react. I don’t even feel bad for Morgan and Anissa because they fully believed in everything that they were doing. I’m not sure if they should’ve been tried as adults because even though they knew the difference between their imagination and real life, they might not have fully been able to process consequences. On the other hand, morally, I don’t think there is any excuse for knowing that shoving a knife in their friend is wrong and illegal. Also, not to judge a book by its cover but when I got to the part of their mugshots, they literally look like little psychopaths. These girls don’t have any emotion neither do they pretend to act like they do. Furthermore, throughout the whole interrogation process, their so bland and don’t seem to regret anything let alone care about Bella.

The McMartin preschool trial took place in the 1980s and was prosecuted by a Los Angeles District Attorney. Members of the McMartin family who were in charge of running the preschool were charged with sexual acts against a group of children who were supposed to be in their care. This was the longest and most expensive trial in American history, after six years of criminal trials no one was actually convicted and the charges were dropped. The accusations alone caused a moral panic amongst parent and people in the community. It all started with one mother saying that her son was having nightmares, and trouble sleeping at night. From that point the chargers and victims kept growing. Most of allegations were made at CII (a child abuse prevention center). Puppets were used to encourage the kids to reveal what happened. I think that it was just a confusion between emotions, facts, and lack of realization that the victims were little kids. One of the first accusations was made by a mother who was later found to be psychotic. Likewise, law enforcement later sent out a letter to parents, directing them to question their children and try and see if they come up with any evidence. This itself is worrying because if each parent is questioning their child, their emotionally involved, which means that they are speaking to their kids with an underlying tone of suggestion. As they continue to urge their children to tell them something about whats happening at the daycare, eventually any child would just break and say anything to be left alone. Even with all of this lack of hard evidence, police continued to push this case. I can’t even believe it lasted a total of six years and then the suspects were simply let off. It was as if everyone just kept going in circles and frighten for apparently no reason.

The Orenthal James Simpson Murder case was a turning point or “the crime of the century” because OJ was charged for two accounts of first degree murder. Initially, he was found innocent because the jury was convinced there was still reasonable doubt, and they should never condemn someone if there wasn’t concrete DNA evidence. It was allegedly claimed that the DNA evidence had been mishandled by the scientists. After the trial, the victims families’ filed a civil lawsuit against Simpson where he was found responsible for both deaths. Personally this case made my head spin. There were so many different aspects and perspectives to it that it was hard to make a decision solely based on the facts. I don’t know what I would have done if I was part of the jury. There was so much emotion and controversy involved throughout the whole trial. There was a celebrity aspect to OJ because no one wanted to believe that someone like him could be a murderer. Likewise, his lawyers were constantly bringing up random previous incidents about racial slurs in other situations. Its understandable to feel a certain emotion about the racism in previous court cases. Its also important to acknowledge that this type of negativity could impact a verdict especially when there is a certain level of hatred towards one side, party, or race. Personally I feel like the media didn’t even clear anything up, they just fueled more fury between both sides. Its one thing to get people thinking about the situation or urging them to voice their opinions, but its a completely different thing to spark straight up controversy and aggravate the public. As much as I’ve tried to rationalize the case myself, every time I  get convinced about OJ being guilty or not, I rethink my opinion because of the media.

By definition, a riot is a disturbance of peace between people by a crowd. Riots are rarely spontaneous, they usually have been thought about for a while before actually being carried out. In other words, its the effect of a culmination of underlying tension between people. It also doesn’t have to be from one event, but rather a common theme between many events that have been previously causing furry in society. The attention being drawn to these rioters is technically negative but civilians are meant to look at the cause of the riots, not what is physically being done. Its not a simple opportunity to vandalize, but they’re effects of genuine anger.

“All of these politicians that get completely overwhelmed and outraged from this level of chaos in their cities during these upheavals seem surprised. Yet … the origins of the upheaval are very much in their control.” Heather Ann Thompson raises a very important point because politicians shouldn’t be complaining if they’re position is specifically meant to listen to the people they represent. What could they possibly expect other than for people to react negatively when their thoughts aren’t heard. You can only suppress people for so long until they finally snap. One example in this article is Charlotte and Baltimore. It took a course of years before they finally rose up and fought back. Its simply just excessive anger towards police, the justice system, politicians, or anyone in charge who doesn’t want to make a difference or uses their power for selfish or wrong reasons. Specifically in Baltimore, locals complained to media (in hopes that their thoughts would be heard), has peaceful protests, and filed lawsuits. Their attempts were constantly leading to dead ends. What other way could they react that would be quick and straight to the point.